Are you sick of the same camera shots? Do you feel that you need a liitle help to change how you take pics? I have been taking photo’s for over 10 years and have picked up some great hints, tips and easy techniques along the way, I hope some of the below will help you take more interesting shots.
1. Dynamic angles. This is a very simple but effective way to add impact to a scene, angle your camera off the standard horizontal or vertical formats and go for a dynamic diagonal. This can look wrong if you do not have the angle right but just try to imagine a line running from one corner of the frame to the opposite corner. You can now position objects of interest down this line.
2. Be creative with your cameras zoom lens. What most people don’t realise is that the different ends of the zoom give very different effects. Try taking all your photos with the wide end (zoomed fully out) all day or all week for portraits, landscape and anything else that takes your fancy. Then try taking all your shots using the long end (telephoto end) for another day or a week. See the difference to your images.
3. Use a shallow depth of field, this is the distance between the closest and most distant point in an image that appear to be in sharp focus. A shallow depth of field is where only an a minimal point in your image is sharp. A large depth of field is where everthing in your image is sharp. To set a shallow depth of field set your camera’s Aperture prioty mode (AV) and chose the smallest F number and have a play.
4. Use long exposures for a bit of creativity. By holding the shutter button down for a prolonged period of time and shooting moving subjects you can create some very interesting and creative images. If you want sharp area’s in your shot for example a sign post or a street scene with blurred car lights you will need a tripod. You will need to set your cameras mode to AV and choose a high F number (start with f8 for example) that will give you a shtter speed of 2 seconds or more. Experiment is the key here.
5. Change your view. Most people take shots from eye level but this makes all your shots look rather boring, try for instance to go down on your knees or even lye down and fill the frame, you could try holding the camera higher and take a shot looking down on the subject, or if the subject is tall try try shooting straight up the side of it. Just remember don’t take your shot’s at eye level.
Please let me know if this article has helped you.
